New collaborative research between NOAA, University of Alaska and an Alaskan shellfish hatchery shows that ocean acidification may make it difficult for Alaskan coastal waters to support shellfish hatcheries by 2040 unless costly mitigation efforts are installed to modify seawater used in the hatcheries.

New research by NOAA, University of Alaska, and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in the journal Oceanography shows that surface waters of the Chukchi and Beaufort seas could reach levels of acidity that threaten the ability of animals to build and maintain their shells by 2030, with the Bering Sea reaching this level of acidity by 2044.

We caught up recently with Remy Okazaki at NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle. Remy is a chemist with the University of Washington Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean (JISAO) working with PMEL’s carbon team on the $2 million Wendy Schmidt Ocean Health XPRIZE, a global competition to advance ocean pH sensing technology to better understand, measure and address ocean acidification. On May 14, XPRIZE will begin the final phase of testing in deep water off the northern coast of Oahu, Hawaii, aboard the R/V Kilo Moana research vessel.

Beginning April 10, scientists aboard NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorerwill begin a series of 20 dives to investigate previously unseen depths of the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean – and the public can follow along online.

During dives that are expected to go as deep as 3.7 miles, a sophisticated unmanned submarine, called a remotely operated vehicle, or ROV, will broadcast live video from the seafloor, allowing anyone with Internet access to watch the expedition as it unfolds.

While research shows that nearly all coral reef locations in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico will experience bleaching by mid-century, a new study showing in detail when and where bleaching will occur shows great variety in the timing and location of these harmful effects.

The new research published today in Global Change Biology by NOAA scientists and colleagues provides the first fine-scale projections of coral bleaching, an important planning tool for managers.